Ivone Gebara

Ivone Gebara was born in São Paulo on December 9, 1944, to a family of Syrian-Lebanese descent. After receiving a degree in philosophy, she joined the Augustinian Congregation of the Sisters of Our Lady in 1967 at the age of 22. She has two doctorates, one earned from the Pontifical Catholic University of São Paulo in philosophy in 1975 and another from the Catholic University of Louvain in Belgium in religious sciences in 1998. Gebara taught at the Instituto Teológico do Recife (ITER) for almost 17 years alongside founder Hélder Câmara. Linked to liberation theology, the institution existed from 1968 until it was closed by order of the Vatican in 1989. Since then she has devoted her time to writing and delivering courses and lectures around the world, on the foundations of religious discourse. Since 1973 Gebara has lived in the Northeast Region. She currently lives in a poor neighborhood of Camaragibe in the Recife metropolitan area, 25 km from Recife.